"LAS FUERZAS DE GADAFI, ATACAN CON BOMBAS DE RACIMO ESPAÑOLAS Y CON COHETES "GRAD" RUSOS".
"Qaddafi Forces Fire Cluster
Bombs Into Civilian Areas".
"Residents of Misurata survey the damage to a mosque in the Qasr Ahmed, neighborhood of the city".
"EUROPA PRESS. 15.04,2011."Las fuerzas del líder libio, Muamar Gadafi, han atacado con bombas de racimo de fabricación española, y con proyectiles tierra-tierra zonas residenciales de Libia, según testimonios de testigos y supervivientes recogidos por el diario estadounidense 'New York Times', que también ha sido testigo de las evidencias sobre el terreno, que ha dejado el armamento pesado utilizado por el régimen".
"Según el diario norteamericano, los restos de las bombas de racimo, que ha podido examinar y fotografiar, corresponden a proyectiles de mortero MAT-120, compuestos por 21 submuniciones diseñadas, para destruir blindados ligeros y matar a personas".
"Los componentes de las municiones de 120 milímetros, según las marcas que constan en los restos, fueron fabricados en España en 2007, antes de que este país rubricara la Convención Internacional contra las bombas de Racimo, y destruyera sus arsenales. Libia nunca ha rubricado este acuerdo internacional".
"Las bombas de racimo, que dispersan municiones de gran potencia explosiva en una amplia zona, no pueden ser lanzadas con precisión y cuando alcanzan zonas civiles, suponen un grave riesgo para la población".
"Durante una rueda de prensa en Berlín, la secretaria de Estado norteamericana, Hillary Clinton, ha asegurado que no es "consciente", de que se hayan empleado bombas de racimo y otras armas pesadas en Misrata, aunque ha dejado claro que no estaría sorprendida, por lo que puedan haber hecho el coronel Gadafi y sus fuerzas".
"Esa es una información preocupante. Y es una de las razones por las que la lucha en Misrata es tan difícil, porque se desarrolla entre barrios cercanos, en zonas urbanas y representa desafíos tanto para la OTAN, como para la oposición", ha añadido".
"El diario 'New York Times' ha asegurado que el uso de bombas de racimo en la ciudad de Misrata se hizo evidente el jueves por la noche, cuando varios proyectiles de mortero de 120 milímetros explotaron en el aire, sobre la ciudad dispersando submuniciones explosivas.
"COHETES GRAD".
"Las bombas de racimo, no han sido el único armamento pesado empleado por las fuerzas de Gadafi en la ciudad de Misrata. Un examen de la zona cercana al puerto de la ciudad, que fue bombardeada intensamente ayer, ha permitido observar que el barrio residencial de Qasr Ahmed fue atacado con proyectiles Grad, que impactaron en varias viviendas, y en las calles y uno de ellos contra el muro de una mezquita".
"Los cohetes Grad, un sistema de armas diseñado por la Unión Soviética para atacar con múltiples explosiones, un campo de batalla, han sido identificados por los fragmentos y restos que dejaron, algunos de ellos con las marcas que indican que fueron fabricados, durante la Guerra Fría".
"Estos proyectiles fueron lanzados por las fuerzas de Gadafi, desde camiones con sistemas lanzadores, cada uno de ellos dotado con doce tubos lanzadores, y con un rango de alcance de unas doce millas o más".
"Uno de los cohetes Grad lanzados el jueves, mató a ocho civiles, según han relatado al diario estadounidense supervivientes y testigos, que han mostrado las perforaciones que dejaron los proyectiles en un parque".
"Los ataques del jueves y las evidencias del empleo de bombas de racimo, y de cohetes Grad apuntan a que el régimen de Gadafi, ha decidido utilizar en la campaña de Misrata armamento diseñado para acabar con las vidas de civiles, según el periódico "New York Times".
"Esto es una tragedia humana", ha denuciado Alí Salem, un residente del barrio de Qasr Ahmed, que ha narrado que sus hijos tienen ahora dificultades para dormir. "¿De qué otra manera se puede llamar cuando bombardean con artillería, cohetes y morteros a gente que está durmiendo segura en sus hogares?", ha añadido".
"Uno de los cohetes Grad que impactó en el barrio de Qasr Ahmed. acabó con la vida de varias personas que estaban haciendo cola para recibir comida. "Yo me eché al suelo cuando empezaron las explosiones", ha relatado Ali Hmouda, un empleado del puerto. "Mi amigo no lo hizo. Perdió su cabeza", ha asegurado"."EN INGLÉS".
"MISURATA, Libya. "Military forces loyal to Col. Muammar el Qaddafi, who have surrounded this city and vowed to crush its anti-Qaddafi rebellion, have been firing into residential neighborhoods with heavy weapons, including cluster bombs that have been banned by much of the world and ground-to-ground rockets, according to the accounts of witnesses and survivors and physical evidence on the ground".
"Such "indiscriminate" weapons, which strike large areas with a dense succession of high-explosive munitions, by their nature cannot be fired precisely, and when fired into populated areas place civilians at grave risk".
"The use of such weapons could add urgency to the arguments by some countries in NATO, principally Britain and France, that the alliance needs to step up attacks on the Qaddafi forces, to better fulfill the United Nations mandate to protect civilians. And it could place pressure on the United States, which pulled back air power from the war when it ceded control of the campaign to NATO earlier this month".
"When asked about the weaponry at a news conference in Berlin, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Cliton said she was "not aware" of the specific use of cluster munitions in Misurata, but said, "I’m not surprised by anything that Colonel Qadaffi and his forces do".
"She added: "That is worrying information. And it is one of the reasons the fight in Misurata is so difficult, because it’s at close quarters, it’s in amongst urban areas and it poses a lot of challenges to both NATO and to the opposition".
"The cluster munitions were visible in use late Thursday night, in the form of what appeared to be 120-millimeter mortar rounds that burst in the air over the city, scattering high-explosive bomblets below".
"Remnants of expended shells, examined and photographed by The New York Times, show the rounds to be MAT-120 cargo mortar projectiles, each of which carries and distributes 21 smaller submunitions designed both to kill people and penetrate light armor".
"Components from the 120-millimeter rounds, according to their markings, were manufactured in Spain in 2007 — one year before Spain signed the international Convention on Cluster Munitions and pledged to destroy its stocks. Libya is not a signatory to the convention, while the Spanish Defense Ministry had no immediate comment".
"Human Rights Watch, the New York based advocacy group, verified the use of the cluster munitions as well, and swiftly called on the Qaddafi government to stop using them".
"It’s unconscionable that Libya is using these indiscriminate weapons, especially in civilian populated areas", said Steve Goose, director of the organization’s arms division. "Cluster munitions are inaccurate and unreliable weapons that by their very nature pose unacceptable dangers to civilians".
"The cluster munitions are not the only indiscriminate heavy weapon system to imperil the city’s neighborhoods. An examination of the area of an intensive rocket barrage on Thursday near the city’s port showed that the Qasr Ahmed residential district was struck by multiple rockets, known as GRADs, which landed in a dense pattern on houses and streets. One rocket shattered the wall beside a mosque".
"The GRAD rockets, an area weapons system designed in the Soviet Union to blanket a battlefield with multiple explosions, were readily indentified by their twisted fragments and remains, some of which bore markings indicating they had been manufactured during the cold war. They are fired from truck-mounted launchers that hold 40 rocket tubes, so that each truck is, essentially, a mobile system that can launch its own barrage 12 miles or more".
"One of the GRAD rockets alone killed eight civilians, according to survivors and witnesses, who then showed two journalists eight hastily dug graves in a public park nearby, where relatives prayed over the dead. The bodies had been interred beside two children’s swing sets. Each grave was dated: April 14, 2011".
"Taken together, the attacks of Thursday and the evidence they left behind, point to a campaign by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces against Misurata that relies in part on weapons designed to endanger the lives of the civilians trapped within. They also support the rebels’ frequent contentions that in the lopsided fight for Libya, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces have targeted civilians or at a minimum, taken few measures to avoid endangering them".
"This is a human tragedy", said Ali Salem, 40, a resident of Qasr Ahmed, who described his four children now struggling to sleep. "What else do you call it when they bomb with artillery, rockets and mortars people who are safely sleeping in their homes?".
"The toll of the GRAD rocket strikes also framed the ways in which civilians in this war are forced into vulnerability. Misurata has few open markets, almost no electricity and limited supplies of food. To eat, many residents must stand in bread lines".
"One of the rockets that landed in Qasr Ahmed exploded beside one of those lines, killing several people waiting for food. "I jumped onto the ground when the explosions started", said Ali Hmouda, 36, an employee of the port. "My friend did not. His head came off".
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